This week’s Onion includes a running related opinion column that’s too funny to pass up.  It’s a piece that describes the trials and hardships involved in training for “the ultimate physical challenge: ruining a marathon.”

“Now, I know what you’re thinking. Sure, everyone would like to ruin a marathon, but who among us has the discipline and energy to get up at the crack of dawn morning after morning, through rain, sleet, and snow, and practice handing out cups of vinegar to the frontrunners? Me, that’s who. Yes, there are some mornings when it’s darn near impossible to keep going—when you feel like you just can’t chip one more pothole in the course with a pickax. But endurance ruining is all about pushing through the pain. And when the big day comes, and you make it over that final hurdle, dodge the cops, and shove an old guy into the bushes, you’ll know all that training was worth it.”

Head over to The Onion to read the full article.

Brian Morrissey of The Internal Pigdog politely expressed some frustrations with the accuracy of his Nike+ SportBand over the course of a few posts in mid May.

On May 18:

“So far, I’m underwhelmed. The chart above shows my run today. After nine years of running, I figure I have a pretty good sense of pace. There’s no way it was that slow. I ran today more at 7:30 or a little below. The graph also has all these peaks and troughs that don’t make sense.”

Again, on May 19:

“To test the accuracy, I ran to the park, then started Nike+. I did the four-mile loop (technically, a USATF-measured 4.04). Nike+ told me 3.71 miles. I was pretty much exactly right about the distance. My internal odometer kicked Nike+’s ass.”

Nike responded directly to Brian’s concerns in the person of Blogger user PLe1, the director of Nike’s RUN NYC program.

“Brian, just for the sake of disclosure I’m the director of Nike’s RUN NYC program. I just want that out there so it’s not like I’m hidng the fact I work for Nike.
Out of the box it’s 90% accurate and set for 8 minute pace but it’s designed so that every runner can make it work for their particular cadence by calibrating it.”

Make sure to check out Brian’s article and the article’s comments thread for the whole story.

What if all Nike+ runners could run in the same race, on the same day, no matter where they are in the world? The flexibility of Nike+ gives runners of all abilities the opportunity to do this. The race, to be known as The Human Race, will be taking place on August 31, 2008.

The 10km (6.21 miles) event will unite over a million Nike+ runners from all around the world in not just a battle of fitness, speed and stamina, but also a battle to raise money for three well known charities - The UN Refugee Charity, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund. Each participating Nike+ runner can choose a charity to represent while they run, and every step in the race will earn money towards their selected charity. Starting in July, the Nike+ Web site will also allow runners to accept and manage personal donations from friends, family and colleagues.

400mToGo.com will be participating in this historic event, will you? More info and sign-up here.

An update to this article was posted on July 6, 2008.

We are delighted and honored to have had the opportunity to interview US-based steeplechase athlete Jordan Desilets. 27 year-old Jordan from Michigan in the United States is a national champion and will be taking part in the 2008 US Olympic Trials later this month. If successful, Jordan will be representing his country in the ultimate athlete’s dream — the summer Olympic games, which take place this year in Beijing, China.

• Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Jordan! Could you give our readers some background information about your running level and experience?
  I started running the mile in the 4th grade and still hold the elementary record. In high school, I had a mile time of 4:15, and a 5k time of 15:16. I moved on to Eastern Michigan University where I was coached by John Goodridge and dropped my time to a 3:59 mile, 1:51 800m, 8:24 Steeplechase, 13:52 5k, and a 29:17 10k. I was a national champion in the steeplechase in 2004, and 6th at the 2004 Olympic Trials. I ran pro for 3 years for Reebok. I am now qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials in the Steeplechase and hope to fair well there.
• What distances and races do you typically run?
  Mid-to-long distance, the mile, 3000m Steeplechase, 5,000m and 10,000m.
• How often do you train?
  6-7 days a week.
• What time of day do you prefer to run?
  In Michigan summers, I run first thing in the morning or at night… no one wants to run when it’s 90 out with 100% humidity.
• Do you eat a special diet?
  Nope…but I probably should.
• What advice would you give to runners wanting to improve their times and run faster?For most road warriors (weekend 5k runners), the biggest problem is that they don’t get on the track enough… They typically have a dedicated running regiment of a few miles per day but never actually get on the track for a work out. Running miles can only build-up your endurance strength, but workouts on the track will get you muscular strong. Even if you’re only getting on the track once a week and doing a simple work out of 8 X 400m with about 90 seconds rest, it will improve your racing substantially. Rest and the pace of a workout are very important. The rest and pace should always be accurate to the second to insure consistency when performing the same work out, this will help you judge your body’s small improvements over time. If you have a 5k goal of 15:37, which is 5:00 mile pace, then you should be performing your 400m reps. at 73-74 seconds, which is just a tad faster than goal pace. If you complete this workout with ease, then the next step would be to knock the rest down to 60 seconds instead of 90. Then, if this one went well, you can drop the 400m times to 71-72 and bump the rest up to 90 seconds again… Rinse and repeat!
• What’s the best piece of running advice anyone has given you?
  Keep running!!! I applied this advice one time when my legs went numb and I was trying to finish my mile in under 4 minutes.
• What motivates you to keep running?
  The desire to always want to better myself. I always have to set several small attainable goals so I can inch forward every race. When I first started running the steeplechase, I started at Olympics and worked my way back to slower and slower goals until I had a list of about 20 different goals, all for the steeplechase. I think one was the school record, maybe a few meet records, and some surrounding track records of places that I raced at often.
• What goes through your mind immediately before a race starts?
  Lately its been “I’m just happy to be here.” After two foot surgeries in back-to-back years and over a year-off from running - and now having qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials - I am happy to be here. Every race seems like a blessing… until about 3 laps to go and my legs are jello, heh, heh!
• Do you use any running technology, such as Nike+, Polar, Garmin etc… to track your times and/or heart rate?
  No.
• Do you use any Web sites or computer applications to store and analyze any of your running data?
  No, but I was thinking about trying the Nike Web site. My wife uses Nike+ and it looks kinda neat. As for now, it’s standard running logs.
• Do you stick with the same brand of running shoe all the time, if so, which one and why?
  No. All through college our sponsors kept changing so I ran in Mizunos and Adidas. I then got sponsored by Reebok coming out of college - just this past year I got a few pairs of Adidas and Brooks. I would have to say my favorite shoes were either Mizunos or the Adidas shoes. As for spikes, I actually bought a bunch of Adistar Steeple from 2001 that I still run in.
• How often do you buy new running shoes?Well, the general rule of thumb is 500 miles or if you alternate day-by-day you can get 700 miles on a pair of shoes. I normally just wear them until they don’t feel good anymore or the tread becomes decently worn.
• Do you have sponsorship? If a potential sponsor is reading this, would you like them to contact you to discuss sponsorship?
  As of now, I do not have any sponsorship but I would absolutely love one. As I said above, I have currently qualified for the Olympic Trials, which begin at the end of June through early July, and I am raising money through friends and family to help get me out to Eugene, OR. If anyone would like to sponsor me they can most definitely contact me. Here are a few track web sites for reference: http://www.eugene08.com/, www.usatf.org, www.iaaf.org
• What events or athletes are you most looking forward to seeing at this year’s Olympics?
  I always watch the Olympics. I just love the whole process from opening to closing ceremony. I will be watching for anyone I know to be out there. It would be nice to see if Bolt can break the 200m record or re-break his new world record in the 100m. I would like to see someone break up Kenya’s 1-2-3 steeplechase sweep.
• What are your running goals / dreams / ambitions?
  My goals are to make an Olympic team either this year or in 2012, make a world team, get sponsored again, race in Europe, hold an American record, and never get injured again

If you would like to follow Jordan’s quest to represent the United States in the 2008 Olympics, here are some links to the event schedule and television schedule:

TV Schedule | Event Schedule

Congratulations to our challenge winners for the month of May!

• simonji ran the Most Miles with 236.1 miles under his belt
• robottino ran the Fastest 1 Mile with a time of 5′23”
• Robi. LM picked up Fasted 3K honors with a time of 11′56”
• SundanceKid ran May’s Fastest 5K with a time of 20′16”
• lasabur is our Fastest 10K winner with a time of 44′09”

Keep up the great work, folks. Jump over to our Challenges page to get into the action for the month of June. May the best runners win!

Smelly shoes are an occupational hazard for all runners. While it’s generally acceptable for your running shoes to smell a little less fresh than the rest of your footwear, no one likes to have a pair of rancid sneakers hiding in the closet. The problem is even worse for guys like myself who don’t own a second pair of casual athletic shoes. I’ve got a nice pair of boots, some dress shoes for work, and then my running shoes. Let’s just say I have to think twice before wearing my running shoes to work on casual Friday.

So how does one win the war on smelly shoes? I’ve scoured the internet for solutions so that you don’t have to, and I’m listing my favorites below.

Invest in a Shoe Dryer

A shoe dryer is a nifty device that uses thermal convection to dry out your footwear. I picked one up years ago when I purchased a nice pair of boots, but I’ve found that it works just as well with any pair of shoes I throw at it. A shoe dryer is one of my favorite ways to keep all of my shoes comfortable and smelling fresh.

Cat Litter and Knee Socks

Sure, this sounds a little weird, but isn’t cat litter intended to kill odors and soak up wetness? Why shouldn’t it work just as well for your smelly shoes as it does for it’s other smelly chore? Simply grab yourself some long socks, fill ‘em with cat litter, tie off the ends, and stick ‘em in your shoes overnight. When you get up the next morning you’ll find that your shoes are nice and dry. Just make sure that you find a scented litter with an agreeable scent, as you’ll likely be catching a whiff throughout the day.

Also recommended: dryer sheets and baby powder.

Put your Shoes in the Freezer

This one sounds weirder than kitty litter in a sock, but think about it for a second. Bacteria is what makes your shoes smell, and bacteria doesn’t survive long in the cold. Grab yourself a large Ziploc bag, seal your shoes inside, and place them in the freezer overnight. Kids, get your parents permission for this one. Mom probably won’t look too kindly on shoes in the freezer unless you’ve given her a heads up first.

Other tips: antibacterial insoles, drying shoes in the sun.

Wicking Fabrics for your Feet

We all know that wicking fabrics are a lot better than cotton for outdoor sports. Using wicking fabric in socks can help keep your feet a lot dryer than they would be otherwise. I picked up some New Balance socks a while back and, while they’re not perfect, they’re a lot more comfortable for exercise and daily wear than 100% cotton socks. And, if you’re not into synthetic wicking materials, try out these bamboo socks. Wicking socks won’t solve the smelly shoe problem, but it does help, and it makes things much more comfortable for the sweaty-footed among us.

Have any of these tips helped out? Have I missed a tip that I should have included? Head down to the comments and let us know!

400mToGo Challenges

We’ve been showing off our private Nike+ challenges since 400mToGo went live. The invite-only challenges began well before 400mToGo was a twinkle in Scott’s eye, and it’s been a blast sharing them with you. While the invite-only challenges have been a lot of fun for our friends and family, the 400mToGo team has decided we want to spread the challenge joy. Starting this month, all of the 400mToGo challenges will be open to the public.

Challenge Categories

The monthly challenge categories are Most Miles, Fastest 1 Mile, Fastest 3K, Fastest 5K, and Fastest 10K. We’ll also be opening up our Most Miles 2008 challenge. If you think you’re up for it, head over to the Challenges page and join up!

April’s Winners

Congrats to deewiles (400mToGo’s very own Cory) for winning the Most Miles April 2008 challenge. Major kudos to derekjmorris, a running machine, who swept the remaining April challenges. Keep up the hard work, guys. Things are about to get a lot more challenging.

Usually, when I login to my Nike+ account, I view my personal challenges and the 400mToGo challenges. However, the other day I was cruising around some of the other Nike+ content and I came across the Distance Club.

Distance Club Milestones
100MI, 500MI, 1000MI, 2000MI, 3000MI, 4000MI, and 5000MI

The the basic mission of 400mToGo is to appeal to Nike+ runners of all abilities. When I came across the Distance Club, I couldn’t believe the tremendous distances that some of my fellow Nike+ runners had logged. I was especially amazed at how many people have reached the top three milestones:

Milestone: Number of Runners
3000MI: 105
4000MI: 34
5000MI: 14

User ChuckJonard, one of the 14 at the 5000MI milestone, has logged a total of 8,728.13 miles at an average pace of 19 minutes 32 seconds. What an accomplishment! I’ve definitely found my newest source of inspiration. These amazing accomplishments prove, with persistence, patience, dedication, and determination, nothing is impossible.

Back in the day, if you wanted to map a running route by distance, you had a couple of options: drive a route and track mileage with your odometer, grab a map, a ruler, and a calculator, or pick a route that was measured by someone else and hope their calculation was correct. Thankfully, with the advent of online mapping, that’s no longer the case. Route planning, mapping, and distance calculation is now a simple matter of a few clicks of the mouse.

So, what’s a pedometer anyhow? According to this Wikipedia article, a pedometer is “a device . . . that counts each step a person takes by detecting the motion of their hips” in order to calculate distance traveled. I guess that means an online mapping tool that calculates distance traveled isn’t really a pedometer, but now I’m just being pedantic.

Seeing as how each of the three online pedometers below is a Google Maps mashup, the “best” tool becomes a matter of personal preference.

Read the rest of this entry »

The New Balance LOVE/hate campaign has begun, and it’s even better than I thought it would be. Very clever ads, in my opinion. As is common nowadays, New Balance is attempting to take their campaign viral by posting the videos on YouTube. Below are my favorite ads from the campaign.

LOVE/hate Rain: “. . . nothing spices up a relationship like a hot, sweaty, make-up run.”

LOVE/hate Bench: “You broke up with running last week, and now you see running everywhere, looking really, really good.”

See the other LOVE/hate videos at YouTube.